Plastic stopper for brake light switch

My brake lights were remaining on, and found out I needed a little
plastic stopper for my '93 Accord. I bought the part from the dealer,
but for the life of me I can't figure out how the stopper goes in (it
came with no instructions). There doesn't seem to be enough space
between the switch and the hole to push it in. The service guys at the
dealer were no help. Am I missing something? Am I supposed to remove/
adjust something to put in the little plastic piece?

 

What happens when you push the brake pedal down by hand and hold it? Is
there then enough room?

 

Not enough room. I've thought about shaving the plastic part some, to
get it to squeeze in, but I'm afraid it will only pop out (and perhaps
drain my battery at an inopportune time).

 

Would removing the switch make enough room? Don't modify the new part,
there has to be a way to get it in.

 

Push a /lot/ harder on the brake pedal. Don't be afraid to really shove it
down; your leg is a lot stronger than your arm!

And use a bit of spit or dish detergent to help the new button slip in
place.

 

Or start the engine so that the vacuum booster is working, that makes a
big difference. Get an assistant to push the pedal with their foot if
there's room.

 

He should take it to a local mechanic as he apparently does not have the
skills to determine how to do it. It would probably be cheaper than ruining
the new part.

 

Depends, with what it costs to take a car to a mechanic these days, he
may very well be able to break half a dozen new parts and still come up
ahead. Besides, each time you figure out how to do something yourself,
that's one more thing you learned and know how to do next time.

 

You could at least give the OP credit for not simply attempting to force
things when he couldn't figure it out the first time; that's how things get
broken.

Instead, conscious of his own limitations, he was cautious and came here
for advice.

 

I quote this all the time: "Having a job is expensive. If
you spend all your time working for someone else, you don't
have any time to learn to do things yourself." -- Charlie
Groden in the 2003 film "Off the Map."

 

Looking at my daughter's '93 Accord, it appears the brake light switch has
to be backed way out or unmounted altogether to get enough room. My
experience (yes, I've had to replace the same part in a Volvo and a Nissan!)
the forward nut, the one you need to loosen to get the room you need, is not
accessible by any reasonable tool. Instead, back off the rear nut half a
turn or so to relieve the jam on the front nut and unscrew the front one
with your fingers. The switch will have to be readjusted anyway, and that is
easy as long as you have somebody to watch the brake lights.

Mike

 

Thanks for the input guys, I was able to finally put in last night. I
had to push the brake pedal much harder than expected to fit it thru
(and it still took multiple efforts).

 

Thanks for the input Mike (and everybody else), I was able to put the
part in this morning.

 

Thanks for the input guys, I was able to finally put in last night. I
had to push the brake pedal much harder than expected to fit it thru
(and it still took multiple efforts).

 

it seems like every job I did on my Integra was like that;
never went easy,always had some snafu or hangup....

like the starter job;two bolts holding it on,bottom one was frozen in,not
enough room for a bigger wrench/breaker bar.
It looked like they didn't use any anti-seize compound on the threads,and
the threads were a lot longer than the other bolt.
there was a lot of cursing and stomping around that day.(while waiting for
my back to straighten out!)

 

I can sympathize. We did my son's '94 Teg clutch a couple years ago (these
days, it seems everything was a couple years ago regardless when it actually
was). I actually pulled a muscle in my face trying to get the gearbox to
line up. The tranny had to be rotated about 30 degrees to get it up in place
so the borrowed tranny jack couldn't be used. The pilot bearing gave us fits
until we realized -- the Helm manual didn't mention it -- that the flywheel
had to be removed and the bearing came out the back. Aargh!!!!!

Mike